Chatham-Kent council will convene for a special meeting Monday night to discuss homeless protocols.
Mayor Darrin Canniff called the meeting Wednesday in response to a deluge of calls to the municipality over the new location of the main homeless camp in Chatham at the PUC property on Grand Avenue East.
“I have received so many calls. A ton of people are really concerned,” Canniff said.
He’s not alone.
“I know there is a lot of emotion. We’re trying to address every email, every telephone call we receive,” Jodi Guilmette, general manager of health and human services for the municipality, said. “We’ve had legitimate issues that have been brought to our attention as well.”
The current protocols include camps not being set up within 10 meters of residential properties, or within 100 metres of playgrounds, schools and athletic fields. Municipal officials said the PUC encampment is in compliance with those protocols.
However, encampment protocols are not etched in stone. They are fluid, and vary from municipality to municipality. In fact, Canniff said that Chatham-Kent is one of the few municipalities to have established protocols in place.
“As we move forward, administration is constantly looking at how to improve that,” he said of the protocols. “I want this to be a council discussion and open to the public.
“The bottom line is we need to support the needs of landowners and people experiencing homelessness. How do we as a municipality balance the two?”
Guilmette said on both sides of the issue are people.
“Sometimes people forget that the people living in these encampments are human beings. They’re somebody’s brother, somebody’s sister, son, daughter, mother, father,” she said.
The municipality’s tiny cabins program – where 50 small cabins have been erected just off Park Street in Chatham – is set to come online next month. Canniff anticipates some who live in the encampment will migrate to the cabins.
The homeless shelter on Murray Street that will close once the cabins open currently has about 35 people living there. Canniff said that shelter was not a good fit for everyone, as couples would have been separated, and pets weren’t allowed.
Canniff said he would put forward a draft motion at Monday’s meeting, something he is still working on with administration.
“I want to put in a straw motion out of what I believe should change, and council will decide accordingly,” he said. “We’re going to discuss the A-to-Z of it.”
The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Monday in council chambers.
